RoxtarRyan:lewismarktwo: Myria: Those who complain about the price of AAA games today must not have been around when Super Mario Bros. 3 came out for $75.

Except that it actually cost $45.

And if they do implement this game prices will absolutely NOT come down. Not even $5.

Actually, after looking at a couple sources, right in the middle at $55 or so. However, there were many games that did retail for $60 or $70.

I think Ultima Quest of the Avatar retailed for $65 or so. It was one of the few NES games with a battery in the cart that was responsible for retaining saved games. Loved that game. It got me into Ultima.

Gonz:On the bright side, without the possibility of a used-game market, the initial cost of new games should drop, since software companies don't have to account for lost revenue from purchases on the second-hand market.

You do not understand how economics works. The amount something costs to produce has very little to do with what it retails for.

If people are still willing to pay $60 for a game, they aren't gonna suddenly lower their prices just because they're making more money.

I seriously doubt this will happen. But still, this idea is not new. Us glorious PC gamer race types have had CD keys for decades. True...entering the key doesn't prevent it from being installed on another computer, but it still renders the game impossible to sell in a used game retail store.

Gunther:Gonz: On the bright side, without the possibility of a used-game market, the initial cost of new games should drop, since software companies don't have to account for lost revenue from purchases on the second-hand market.

You do not understand how economics works. The amount something costs to produce has very little to do with what it retails for.

If people are still willing to pay $60 for a game, they aren't gonna suddenly lower their prices just because they're making more money.

They'll get the $60 from all the people that normally buy their games new. Then a certain percentage of people that buy used with buy new instead. Absolutely no incentive to drop the price.

As PC requirements continue to level off, consoles are going to face an uphill battle. Before a PC would not meet the system requirements a year after you bought it, today a midrange system from a few years back can still play most new games.

Factor in that 6 year old systems are still selling for up to $300, despite that they are likely to be obsolete in the next year, new game engines like Unity 3D making high end graphics accessible on slower hardware, and the rise of free to play games and there will be no reason to buy a new Xbox our PlayStation.

JonZoidberg:RoxtarRyan: lewismarktwo: Myria: Those who complain about the price of AAA games today must not have been around when Super Mario Bros. 3 came out for $75.

Except that it actually cost $45.

And if they do implement this game prices will absolutely NOT come down. Not even $5.

Actually, after looking at a couple sources, right in the middle at $55 or so. However, there were many games that did retail for $60 or $70.

I think Ultima Quest of the Avatar retailed for $65 or so. It was one of the few NES games with a battery in the cart that was responsible for retaining saved games. Loved that game. It got me into Ultima.

As far as I know, anything that didn't have a code for continuing, and actually saved you game, had a battery in the cart. Which sucks now, because even if your NES still works, the batteries are all long dead. Most only had a 3-5 year lifespan.

miniflea:CygnusDarius: My computer, not being very powerful, can't run skyrim, hell, sometimes it runs Fallout NV a little slow (renders distance like shiate, for example, since I need to zoom in to see a little bit beyond), and I really like RPGs, so I'm looking for an action RPG with freaking roleplaying elements to it, a decent story, and decent graphics. So far, I have Skyrim, but on the xbox, and NV. My guess it's possible get Fallout 3 (which I already beat), or either Oblivion or Morrowind, but any suggestions are welcome :) .

Xbox versions of Fallout 3 and Oblivion are just fine as long as you won't miss mods. Morrowind was released for the original Xbox and compared to the PC version was just plain terrible, and this from a guy who plays Minecraft on his Xbox.

Actually, I'm looking for PC rpgs, so Fallout 3 with mods and Morrowind?.

Gonz:On the bright side, without the possibility of a used-game market, the initial cost of new games should drop, since software companies don't have to account for lost revenue from purchases on the second-hand market.

I would totally be for this if the next generation of consoles was digital distribution only. Essentially, take out the optical drive and treat all games the way Xbox DD works today.

1) The title can be played by anyone on the console used for the initial purchase, without requiring an Internet connection (after the initial download).2) The title can be downloaded to any additional consoles; The purchaser must be logged in on that console to play, but the Internet connection is only needed for initial authentication and bare bones performance is adequate.3) The "master copy" can be transferred to another console once every 12 months, or as many times as needed for warranty replacements.

As a bonus for killing the Gamestop leech model and eliminating the cost and waste of physical media distribution, it would be awesome to see prices roll back to the $40 range.

If I pay for it.. I want to touch it, insert it, and play around until I've been satisfied.

I'm sort of like this with music and books. I have no interest in digital alternatives for each, nor do I feel them worth anything from a monetary standpoint for various reasons.

It stands to reason then that I *should* feel the same way about PC games... but I've been a Steam customer for years. Part of this could be that PC games haven't been always quite as available in local stores, and also because the used / trade-in policy on PC games back in the day was much worse than it was for consoles.

At this point, the only thing I really miss about the 'good ol' days' is the capacity for hosting your own online games, using whatever rules you like, and devs giving users the tools to go forth and make their own mods. These seem to be dying, if not already dead, mindsets for the most part.... probably thanks in part to many games being developed for console first, then ported to pc.

As I stated earlier, this could be successful if done correctly. If Microsoft drops the sub fee for their live service, and prices new titles in a competitive manner, folks will probably start to embrace the idea of it.

The Ouya might actually have a chance to kick MS and Sony's ass, after all.

For those who don't know, it's an Android-based console that is mostly open, meaning anyone can develop for it without an expensive dev kit, as long as they honor the requirement of the game having some "free to play" features.

And don't let the fact that it's Android-based make you think it's all tablet games or mobile games. There are some nice titles being developed. Of course, with an open platform you're going to get a lot of crap, too, but I think the cream will float to the top.

The Ouya's only $99, and I suspect it will be more of a challenger than the big boys think.

Also you are not going to make a game anything like the big selling a list console or pc games for a 99 buck android console. it is NOT going to happen, it will be both physically incapable and unsuitable by design for this purpose, and its owners, by its nature, will not be willing to spend the money that big projects cost. Peoplee WANT THOSE BIG GAMES. They dont buy millions of copies at 40-60 dollars because they dont want them. This is just mobile gaming without the mobile and without tiny screens to mask the primitive quality, ps2/xbox games in 2014 on large hidef tvs looking shiat.

As far as I know, anything that didn't have a code for continuing, and actually saved you game, had a battery in the cart. Which sucks now, because even if your NES still works, the batteries are all long dead. Most only had a 3-5 year lifespan.

That's not actually true, at least in my experience. While most of the games I sell don't have the battery, I've never yet replaced one, sold a bunch, and have not received any complaints thus far. I realize it's not universal, but either I've been incredibly lucky, or they last a lot longer than most people think.

As far as I know, anything that didn't have a code for continuing, and actually saved you game, had a battery in the cart. Which sucks now, because even if your NES still works, the batteries are all long dead. Most only had a 3-5 year lifespan.

That's not actually true, at least in my experience. While most of the games I sell don't have the battery, I've never yet replaced one, sold a bunch, and have not received any complaints thus far. I realize it's not universal, but either I've been incredibly lucky, or they last a lot longer than most people think.

/helps if you polish the contacts//trust me

My LOZ and AOL carts still work/save. Also my Dragon Warrior 1-3 carts. Have yet to have a SNES cart fail. I think I'm lucky.

As far as I know, anything that didn't have a code for continuing, and actually saved you game, had a battery in the cart. Which sucks now, because even if your NES still works, the batteries are all long dead. Most only had a 3-5 year lifespan.

That's not actually true, at least in my experience. While most of the games I sell don't have the battery, I've never yet replaced one, sold a bunch, and have not received any complaints thus far. I realize it's not universal, but either I've been incredibly lucky, or they last a lot longer than most people think.

/helps if you polish the contacts//trust me

My LOZ and AOL carts still work/save. Also my Dragon Warrior 1-3 carts. Have yet to have a SNES cart fail. I think I'm lucky.

All the carts work, but they don't seem to save the games anymore. I can go through and kill Ganon if I want, but I have to do it in a straight shot.

As far as I know, anything that didn't have a code for continuing, and actually saved you game, had a battery in the cart. Which sucks now, because even if your NES still works, the batteries are all long dead. Most only had a 3-5 year lifespan.

That's not actually true, at least in my experience. While most of the games I sell don't have the battery, I've never yet replaced one, sold a bunch, and have not received any complaints thus far. I realize it's not universal, but either I've been incredibly lucky, or they last a lot longer than most people think.

/helps if you polish the contacts//trust me

My LOZ and AOL carts still work/save. Also my Dragon Warrior 1-3 carts. Have yet to have a SNES cart fail. I think I'm lucky.

All the carts work, but they don't seem to save the games anymore. I can go through and kill Ganon if I want, but I have to do it in a straight shot.

Sucks, and I'm sorry. Love me old school Nintendo. Like I said, I must be fairly lucky. I do know others whose carts still save. Eh, that's what emulators are for.

You guys know you can buy replacement batteries on ebay etc right? Also yeah you need the special screwdriver (damn you,l Nintendo!) but if you have several games, it's totally worth it to be able to maintain your games.

Kazan:Xbox spend $3bn replacing RROD'd consoles under extended warranties. they were under NO OBLIGATION to extend those warranties.

This is true they weren't however, depending on where in the world you lived they WERE obligated to replace the defective systems. Consumer electronics are expected to last between 3 - 5 years, that's what the law says.

This wouldn't surprise me at all if it were true, as Microsoft has always been a dick when it comes to licensing and use. It always annoyed me that they charged for Xbox live and locked out stuff like Netflix without a gold account. That's shiatty Microsoft. The Sony offering is better where they offer a baseline of functionality for free and added content for a fee.

Microsoft didn't seem to learn any lessons from their business/OS/dev software and appear to be set to make similar mistakes in gaming.

Vaneshi:Kazan: Xbox spend $3bn replacing RROD'd consoles under extended warranties. they were under NO OBLIGATION to extend those warranties.

This is true they weren't however, depending on where in the world you lived they WERE obligated to replace the defective systems. Consumer electronics are expected to last between 3 - 5 years, that's what the law says.

I had a PS3 die on my after a year. Manufactor guarantee is only a year. The shop that sells it must give 2 years.

Sony says "fark you, pay me" to get it repaired, shop says "We don't repair them, you have to contact Sony". So, I could get a lawyer and face one or two giant multinational corporations in a country that doesn't even allow class action suits...

lucksi:Vaneshi: Kazan: Xbox spend $3bn replacing RROD'd consoles under extended warranties. they were under NO OBLIGATION to extend those warranties.

This is true they weren't however, depending on where in the world you lived they WERE obligated to replace the defective systems. Consumer electronics are expected to last between 3 - 5 years, that's what the law says.

I had a PS3 die on my after a year. Manufactor guarantee is only a year. The shop that sells it must give 2 years.

Sony says "fark you, pay me" to get it repaired, shop says "We don't repair them, you have to contact Sony". So, I could get a lawyer and face one or two giant multinational corporations in a country that doesn't even allow class action suits...

Same would have happened with an XBOX

Dude, it's called Craigslist. All kinds of repair people there. It's also where I got my modded WiiU with like 600 Wii and WiiU games pre-loaded. Granted, i only play a dozen of them, since current Nintendo is largely for babies, the elderly, and the inept whiny ''games are too hard!' gamer, but hey, New Super Mario Bros U, Zelda(i will always love Zelda),and ZombieU.

robohobo:lucksi: Vaneshi: Kazan: Xbox spend $3bn replacing RROD'd consoles under extended warranties. they were under NO OBLIGATION to extend those warranties.

This is true they weren't however, depending on where in the world you lived they WERE obligated to replace the defective systems. Consumer electronics are expected to last between 3 - 5 years, that's what the law says.

I had a PS3 die on my after a year. Manufactor guarantee is only a year. The shop that sells it must give 2 years.

Sony says "fark you, pay me" to get it repaired, shop says "We don't repair them, you have to contact Sony". So, I could get a lawyer and face one or two giant multinational corporations in a country that doesn't even allow class action suits...ySame would have happened with an XBOX

Dude, it's called Craigslist. All kinds of repair people there. It's also where I got my modded WiiU with like 600 Wii and WiiU games pre-loaded. Granted, i only play a dozen of them, since current Nintendo is largely for babies, the elderly, and the inept whiny ''games are too hard!' gamer, but hey, New Super Mario Bros U, Zelda(i will always love Zelda),and ZombieU.

Theaetetus:There are somewhere around 30-40 million people on XBox Live (subscribers, not necessarily all online at the moment). If even a mere 1% were online at one point, that would drastically change those numbers... and the real numbers are probably more like 10-20%. PSN is lower, but not negligible.Point is that while Steam's numbers are nothing to sneeze at, they shouldn't be used for industry wide extrapolation.

50 million Steam users according to Gabe's recent talk. The figure you see on the Steam client is quite literally 1% - 2% of Steams total user base online at any given time. So the XBox people doing the same would actually result in a similar figure.

Currently it's showing 3.5m online with a 48hr peak of 5.7m. Most are playing DOTA2, Football Manager 2013 and TF2. 2,971 people are currently playing COD2.

if these rumors turn out to be true i wonder if microsoft (and the other two) realizes that they're shooting themselves in the foot. the rental companies like gamefly, blockbuster, ect would not support it since the game would turn into a coaster after the first rental. those rental companies buy thousands of games a year.

SurfaceTension:Why isn't there a game system that institutes a pay-for-play system where you pay a small fee to get the game, but each time you start the game, the system has to be connected to the internet and you pay a $0.10 fee or something like that? Or would that model even work technologically?

I predict that, in the not too distant future, this will be how all content works. You'll pay every time you want to hear a song, or watch a movie, or play a game, or...

IIRC, legally, you already don't really "own" any content-- you own a license to use it in approved ways. Changing the terms of that license would be trivial from a legal standpoint.

I don't mind buying games that are locked to my account on Steam. When they drop to $5-$10 each. I'm sure as hell not paying $50-$60 (or more) for console games that are locked to one machine.

nl37tgt:if these rumors turn out to be true i wonder if microsoft (and the other two) realizes that they're shooting themselves in the foot. the rental companies like gamefly, blockbuster, ect would not support it since the game would turn into a coaster after the first rental. those rental companies buy thousands of games a year.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Gamestop quit supporting them too. A lot of their profit comes from used games, and if they can't resell Microsoft's games...well, they probably wouldn't dump Microsoft entirely but I can see them using much less floor space for their new console.

This would be interesting if it comes to pass. IT'd instantly catapult Sony to first place (provided that they aren't dumb enough to pull the same trick) and it may actually put Microsoft into a distant third. Behind the Wii U.

Mugato:Mugato: Electrify: Factor in that 6 year old systems are still selling for up to $300, despite that they are likely to be obsolete in the next year,

Well the most expensive one is the PS3 but you get a BluRay, a little under $100 value. But true, that's still a lot. The XBox 360 is a little less. The Wii is about thirty bucks.

I forgot to put in that the PS3 is $250.

Was thinking of our friends across the pond in Europe, where their only options are a 500GB system for about $300USD or a 12GB SSD for $250. This means many features like DLC, demos, installs, etc become out of the question.

But you are right, in most territories it is only $250.

/yes, you can upgrade the hard drive, but how many people are going to do that?//while a nice feature, if I have to do it out of the box, I might as well get a PC

scottydoesntknow:We have not been able to confirm the veracity of this new report, which claims that Durango discs will ship with one-time-use activation codes that render them irrelevant to anyone but the person who first uses them.

Confirm it, then maybe I'll care.

Exactly. Spokespeople from both Sony and Microsoft stated in interviews last year that they have no intention of doing something like that, as it would give the competition an immediate leg up by simply choosing NOT to have those same features. Unless it becomes an industry standard across all platforms, I don't believe the hype. However, if it does turn out to be true, I'll just have to stop playing consoles.